


The Fraternisation Policy

by Caladenia



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Humor, Fraternization, Out of Character, fraternisation, mention of a wedding and of a cake too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:55:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25833841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caladenia/pseuds/Caladenia
Summary: How Jack and Sam had their wedding cake and ate it too. Set anytime between Seasons 3 and 8.
Relationships: Samantha "Sam" Carter/Jack O'Neill
Comments: 14
Kudos: 50





	The Fraternisation Policy

* * *

It had happened. At last. Mind you, it had taken three days of constant attack on P-something-something-something. Followed by a desperate dash to the planet’s stargate, hobbling and cursing (Jack), and with a nasty gash to the side and less cursing (Sam). Then a couple of nights spent in the infirmary for the two of them. And to top it all off, a ‘don’t want to see or hear from you until Monday week’ leave from the general.

Only for Sam to find her house uninhabitable after the neighbour’s tree had fallen through the roof, and she had to organise repairs and find somewhere to stay.

So, let’s be clear here. Sam staying at Jack’s fishing cabin had not been planned. Or thought of in any kind of details. Actually, thoughts had been the least of their worries. Not that they’d worried for too long either.

However, on the last day of a week of mind-blowing sex and steaming love, they sat down and had a conversation after the fact, the gist of which was: Sam would have to be reassigned to a different SG team.

“There’s no other way, Jack. It’s that or I’ll have to transfer out of the SGC altogether.”

“I’ll resign. Simpler. The paperwork is still in my drawer. I’ll just whiteout the previous date.”

“Don’t.” She bent over her porridge bowl and gave him a peck on the nose. “I like to see you in a uniform.”

“Could get a job as a janitor somewhere posh,” he said, caressing her cheek.

She captured his lips. “Not the same. I like to see you in a military uniform.”

“Until you rip it off me,” he mumbled behind her ear.

Breakfast was cold by the time they returned to the kitchen.

Two days later, after duly informing Hammond of their new relationship, Sam was reassigned to SG5, and SG1 sported a brand-new scientist. To everybody's relief, the changes were swift. Hammond had expected Jack to make a fuss at the new face on SG1, but he welcomed the woman with a large smile and none of the sassiness he'd showed Carter years before.

SG1 was happy, SG5 ecstatic, the fraternisation policy upheld. General Hammond was a contented man. He wondered when the wedding would be.

**⁂**

“General, could I have a word?”

“Of course, Colonel. Sit down.”

Colonel Resid was dependable, well liked by his team. He was no O'Neill, but one O'Neill was enough for Hammond to handle. Thank God for small mercies.

Resid looked at his hands, then his gaze travelled the sides of the room.

“How’s your team going?” Hammond asked, feeling jovial.

The man lifted his eyes, licked his lips. “It's about Major Carter, sir.”

“How is she fitting in?”

“I'd like her transferred out of my team.”

“Transferred? What? Why? She's only been under your command for two weeks.”

Of all the SG team members, Carter was the last person he would expect to make trouble. Much of SGC success in combating the Goa'uld was due to her brilliant intellect and utter dedication to protecting Earth. She was fiercely loyal to her team mates, knew the rules backwards, and—

“As soon as possible,” the man added, his hands fidgeting as if he wished he was handling a live grenade instead of telling his CO that one of the country’s national treasures was no longer welcome on his team.

Stunned, the general pushed himself back in the relative comfort of his chair. “You're going to have to do better than that. Did the major refuse an order? Put the safety's team in jeopardy? Went off by herself on an unnecessary errand? Slept while on guard duty?”

Of course, none of those reasons were likely. Dr Jackson, most probably. Not Major Carter.

“It's not that, sir.” The grizzled man, a decorated Iraq war veteran with twenty-five years in the military, shuffled on his chair.

“Spit it out, son." It must have been something bad. Very bad. He might have to call a court martial. Or at the very least demote the only expert anybody listened to here. And what was he going to say to Jacob?

“It's personal. Sir.”

Hammond lifted himself off his chair. “Personal?”

“She watches my six, sir. All the time.”

Hammond had no idea where Resid was going with that critical piece of information, but he could sense a headache coming. “From what I understand, that's the position Colonel O'Neill preferred to put her. Mainly so she could keep an eye on Dr Jackson.”

He had pondered at times if that was the only reason, but SG1 had proven their valour more than any other team under his command, and what happened within a team was none of his business.

Until it was.

“I know,” Resid continued. “And that's my problem. She's doing her job too...” The man stammered.

“…too what?” Hammond growled. Maybe it wasn’t Carter the problem.

“Too well.” The man’s eyes met his, then swivelled off. “Sir.”

Hammond didn’t like to browbeat his people, but he had had enough. “Colonel, unless Major Carter is doing something against regulations, I don't want to hear about it. Take it up with her. Dismissed.”

The colonel scrambled out of his chair and out of the office in under one second.

Nothing of the sort had ever happened when Carter was part of SG1. Resid must have been dreaming.

**⁂**

“It's the Colonel, sir.”

Marvis was looking at him with pleading eyes. Very much the same look Resid had given him two days before.

“It can take a while to warm up to Colonel O’Neill, Lieutenant. You'll do just fine.”

Maybe he should resign from SGC Command. Find himself somewhere quiet to live.

“That's the point, sir. He's warmed up pretty quick.”

No responsibilities. No—What? “I don't quite get your point, Lieutenant. Has he said something rude or patronising?”

O’Neill’s sense of humour could be a tad abrasive at times.

“Oh no, sir. I wouldn't come and see you if it was just that. I can take care of myself.”

Good. Good. “Then what?”

He didn't say ‘spit it out’ to the smart officer in front of him. Hammond knew how hard it was for women to make a name for themselves in the military, and they didn’t need their CO to pressure them. He didn't think O'Neill would do that either. Must have been some misunderstanding between the two.

“It’s just…”

A small cabin in the Rockies. Far from anybody.

“When I talk science…”

Or an assignment in one of those countries the US was currently at war with. Plenty of those around.

“He looks at me like there’s nothing else more important in the whole universe.” Lieutenant Marvis, MPhil (Oxford), blushed. “It makes me uncomfortable.”

A submarine was even better. Although transferring to the Navy might be pushing things a tad too far.

“Uncomfortable. Of course.” Hammond pinched the bridge of his nose. “Have you talked to him? Because unless this becomes more—” he waved his hand “—or less—” another wave, “you know…”

The woman was focusing on his every word, although disappointment spread on her face the longer he spoke. He stood, and she scrambled to her feet, towering above him. “Talk to the Colonel. You’ll find he’ll listen,” he said, lamely.

“Yes, sir.” She saluted then turned around to leave but not before giving him a disenchanted glare.

**⁂**

Hammond transferred Lieutenant Marvis out of SG1 when she point-blank refused to go on another mission, and he moved Carter to SG7, earning him the thanks of both Marvis and Resid. The strange thing was that neither O’Neill or Carter seemed to mind.

He hadn’t talked to them. He loved them both dearly and wished them well. Their relationship was still in its early days, and there was no point in bringing up even a hint that one, or both, might have strayed. It must have been the shock of not working together after so many years on the same team. Nothing more. They’d get used to it, and the SGC would soon go back to normal.

Doctor Reinhard, Marvis’ replacement on SG1, lasted three days before coming through the stargate with a broken nose.

“He sneaked behind me, and when I turned around, bam!” O’Neill slammed his fist into his left palm. “The handle of my P90 caught him right on the schnozzle. Those science people, they should be a bit more careful.”

“All right. I’ll assign you Captain Durand. She’s been asking to come to the SGC for months.”

“Third time lucky, heh, General?”

Hammond’s headache had taken permanent residency on his shoulders and neck now.

**⁂**

Usually known for their verbose language—their team leader being a lapsed literature teacher—SG7’s latest mission report hardly filled two pages, with not one mention of Carter, their new team member.

Hammond considered asking SG7 leader, Major Herzog, for her opinion in a face-to-face meeting, but let it drop. The mission had obviously been pretty mundane, with nothing for Carter to do.

The second report was half a page long. ‘We went, we saw, we came back’ type of phrasing.

Hammond was in the Briefing room when SG7 came back from its third mission off-planet. As they emerged from the active gate, Major Herzog’s face went as red as a beet, Carter looking at her with hooded eyelids and undulating hips. That was at least two policies she was breaching if Herzog was to put in a complaint.

Hammond disappeared back in his office. He was glad he didn’t have any hair left to pull. Once upon a time, he’d thought the fraternisation rule a good idea. It was meant to keep a clear chain of command, and help with decision-making in times of danger and stress. It had stood the test of time, and he wasn’t one to mess with an established protocol which had served the Air Force well.

Now, the very same policy was letting him and the SGC down.

**⁂**

_I think he saw me make a pass at Herzog._

Jack smiled as he scrunched Sam’s Post-It note. Since they were no longer on the same team, he didn’t have an excuse for seeking her out while at the SGC.

He lobbed the note into the waste basket. Now, he needed to think about what to do with Captain Durand.

**⁂**

“Jack.”

“General?”

“What’s going on?”

“General?”

“Don’t give me that…that look, Jack. You know perfectly well what I’m talking about. Durand has transferred back to Area 51.”

“Oh? Is that why she wasn’t at the mission briefing this morning?” Jack frowned. “She should have told me.”

That Hammond had almost cussed and forgotten Durand’s rank was telling. He was rattled.

Good.

Well, not good-good. Hammond was a dear friend, and Jack didn’t like making his life a misery.

But there was too much at stake.

**⁂**

SG9, SG11, SG13. By the time Carter had moved through half of the SG teams, two months had passed. The SGC was in turmoil because of all the reshuffling of personnel. Nothing was getting done and it was only because the Goa’uld were busy fighting each other rather than attacking Earth that Hammond let it go on for so long.

Meanwhile the normally tightly knit SG1 team was falling apart at the seams. Not that T’ealc said anything, because he never really did say much. But his taciturn self got even more dour as the weeks passed, and one scientist after another fled the SGC’s flagship team. Even Daniel, usually full of enthusiasm at meeting anybody new, whether alien or human, was not himself. His allergies had flared again, and he was now found more often in the infirmary than in his lab.

It was all getting too much for Hammond. He decided to go up the chain of command. After all, what’s the point in having somebody above you if you can’t ask them for a favour from time to time.

Hammond explained his case in detail, with plenty of evidence laid out on the ornate executive desk. He could see the President was preoccupied by more important issues than who was a member of SG1. It was a re-election year after all.

Following his impassioned address, Hammond went back to the SGC and waited. He had not expected a response within three days, but there it was, written in black and white with the government seal neatly centred at the top of the page and the signature of the Commander in Chief of the US military forces at the bottom.

The important bit of the letter read: _And I thereby amend Section 2.3 of the Air Force Instruction 36-2909 (Air Force Professional Relationships And Conduct) to allow Colonel Jonathan J. O’Neill and Major Samantha Carter to serve together on the same team as long as their commanding officer deems it necessary for the safe and successful operation of Stargate Command._

**⁂**

A month later, General Hammond was among the invitees to the wedding of Samantha Carter and Jack O’Neill.

The last two SG1 missions had been great successes with two Goa’uld ships destroyed and three planets liberated. Major Carter was back to doing what she knew best, which included meticulously watching Colonel O’Neill’s six, and Jack looked at her with doey eyes every time she talked science at the briefings. Likewise, and seemingly overnight, all the other SG teams had returned to their usual high peak of professionalism, good order, respect for authority and proper discipline _._

All was well, and General Hammond cut himself another slice of the wedding cake.

**⁂**

“Husband.”

“Wife.”

Sam nestled against Jack, wiping cake crumbs off his chest. “I still feel guilty.”

“What about?” Jack asked, his slightly sticky fingers gliding down his wife’s bare back. What had he done to deserve her?

“You know. Forcing Hammond’s hand in getting the two of us to stay together on SG1.”

“Oh! That?” Jack’s mind was not exactly focused on the general right now. His lips followed the path of his fingers, and Sam stretched languidly under him. If guilt looked like her, he was ready to go to hell.

“I do regret breaking what’s-his-name’s nose. Must have hurt.”

“Even Daniel couldn’t stand him,” Sam chuckled.

“What about Herzog? Would you have pushed her a bit more if you hadn’t been transferred?”

Sam turned over, her left breast just in reach of his mouth. “I might have,” she moaned. “Her backside was gr—"

Jack’s hand found her ticklish spot, and she dissolved into giggles.

**Author's Note:**

> I might have misunderstood some of the nuances of the [US Air Force fraternisation policy](https://www.thebalancecareers.com/air-force-fraternization-policies-3344063)


End file.
